Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly
Home | Castles Index | Gordons of Interest | Lands, Estates | Battlefields Parentage Family Tree Father's 1st wife ---- Father's 2nd wife Offspring Family Tree 1st wife married 14 October 1474 ---- 2nd wife married after 27 July 1511 History Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly was the son of George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly and Lady Elizabeth Hay. As a favorite of King James IV., he acquired considerable grants of land throughout his career. In 1500, he was made hereditary sheriff of Inverness, giving him considerable powers throughout the north of Scotland. He was also granted Strathavon, Banffshire. He succeeded to the title of 3rd Earl of Huntly in June 1501. He witnessed the marriage contract of James IV in 1503. In 1505, a rebellion having broken out in the Isles, he was sent by James IV. To invade them on the north, while the king himself led an army against them in person from the south, when many of the chieftains submitted to the royal authority. The following year Huntly stormed the castle of Stornoway in Lewis, the stronghold of Torquil Macleod, the great head of the rebellion. He was one of the guarantees of a treaty of peace with the English in 1509. In 1509, he was awarded the comital Lordship of Lochaber. He was invested as a Privy Counselor, and accompanied James to the fatal field of Flodden, 9th September 1513, and was one of the nobles who endeavored to dissuade him from risking a battle. The Earl of Huntly was held in the highest reputation of all the Scots nobility, “for his valiancy, joined with wisdom and policy.” In that memorable battle, so disastrous to his countrymen, he commanded, with Lord Home, the van of the Scots army, assisted by his two brothers, Adam, earl of Sutherland, and Sir William Gordon of Gight. Huntly and Home charged the right wing of the English, under Sir Edmund Howard, with so much impetuosity that it was speedily put to flight. With his brother the earl of Sutherland, he escaped the carnage of that dreadful day. In the parliament which met at Perth n October, when the regency was committed to the queen-mother, it was determined that she should be guided by the counsels of the Earls of Huntly and Angus, and Bethune, archbishop of Glasgow. During the minority of James V., Huntly was the most influential lord in the north, and in 1517, on the regent Albany’s departure for France, he was appointed one of the council of regency. By patent dated 26th February 1518, he was constituted the king’s lieutenant over all Scotland, except the west Highlands. In 1523, he excused himself from joining, with his vassals, the force which Albany had collected for the invasion of England, on the ground of indisposition, and when Albany finally left Scotland, the same year, Huntly was again appointed one of the members of the regency. He died at Perth 16th January 1524. He was twice married: first, to Lady Jean Stewart, eldest daughter of John Stewart, 1st Earl of Atholl, brother uterine of King James II., by whom, with two daughters, he had four sons; and, secondly, to a daughter of Lord Gray, widow of the sixth Lord Glammis, by whom he had one daughter. His sons, by his first marriage, were, 1. George, who died young. 2. John, Lord Gordon, one of the young noblemen whom Albany carried with him to France in 1517, and who died at the abbey of Kinloss, December 5th the same year, soon after his return to Scotland. 3. Alexander, ancestor of the Gordons of Clunny. 4. William, bishop of Aberdeen ---- Home | Castles Index | Gordons of Interest | Lands, Estates | Battlefields Category:People Category:Ducal